At the Tigers-Yankee Game, a Fleeting Moment That Wouldn’t Go Away

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By Vincent M. Mallozzi

June 10, 2017

Isabella Tobias and Samuel Kenneth Lites were married June 10 at the Fox Theater in Detroit. Lisa I. Murray, an aunt of the groom who was ordained through the Mount Zion Church, officiated, with Rabbi Tamara Kolton taking part.

The bride, 25, is a Detroit-based ice dancer who competed at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, and has qualified to compete in the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea. She attended the School of American Ballet from 1999, when she was 8, until 2006, when she was 15, performing numerous times with the New York City Ballet. She is studying for a bachelor’s degree in English literature at the University of Michigan.

She is the daughter of Madalyn Tobias and Stephen R. Tobias of New York. The bride’s father is the president of Israel A. Englander and Company, a New York-based firm that provides derivatives brokerage services to institutional customers in the United States.

The groom, 27, is an amateur scout for the Detroit Red Wings of the National Hockey League. He graduated from Southern Methodist University and received a master’s degree in sports administration from Wayne State University, where he is also studying for an M.B.A.

He is the son of Denise D. Ilitch of Detroit and James R. Lites of Dallas. The groom’s mother is the president of Ilitch Enterprises, a real estate and investment firm in Detroit. She is also a member of the Board of Regents of the University of Michigan, and a chairwoman of Horizon Global Corporation, a company in Troy, Mich., that makes and distributes trailer hitches, brake controls, bike racks and other custom towing, trailer and cargo management products.

The groom’s father is the president and chief executive of the Dallas Stars of the N.H.L. The groom is the maternal grandson of Marian Ilitch of Bingham Farms, Mich., and the late Mike Ilitch. His grandmother owns the Detroit Tigers of Major League Baseball and the Red Wings and is the founder of Little Caesars Pizza.

In 2012, Ms. Tobias and Mr. Lites initially met that summer through a mutual friend at a Tigers-Yankees game at Comerica Park in Detroit. She wore a Yankees cap and team jersey; he had on a Tigers cap and team jacket.

“I thought he was really cute, but I wasn’t having the greatest day because I had been heckled by some Tigers fans earlier in the game,” Ms. Tobias said. “Although he was very nice and very sweet, we kept it short and moved on. It was just one of those quick, fleeting moments in life.”

But it was a moment that Mr. Lites tightly held on to via Facebook.

“She was the kind of girl you notice right away and have a hard time forgetting,” Mr. Lites said. “I also appreciated the fact that she was a very confident person with a very strong personality.”

They chatted electronically on occasion, but in winter 2013, Ms. Tobias, who was living and training in Ann Arbor, Mich., at the time, called Mr. Lites to tell him that she would be participating in a skating event at Joe Louis Arena in Detroit. She asked if he might be able to pull a few strings to help her parents find parking.

Mr. Lites promptly sent along a parking pass and then slowly stepped up his pursuit of Ms. Tobias.

Ms. Tobias thanked him and sent back her number. “I was so excited because I really had a thing for him,” she said, “and now it looked as if it was finally happening between us.”

They were dating by December 2013, and in February, Mr. Lites went to Sochi for three days to watch Ms. Tobias compete in the Olympics. While there, he met her parents for the first time. Each of them, and Ms. Tobias, gave him perfect scores across the board.

“Being that he was from a very prominent family, I was worried that he might be this flashy, obnoxious guy,” Ms. Tobias said. “But I soon found out that he is actually kind of shy and very soft-spoken, which was totally not what I expected.

“Above all other things, he was humble and very genuine. My family loved him, and so did I.”